Mac Wiseman in 2014, when he entered the Country Music Hall of Fame. (Photo by Mark Humphrey, AP) |
The list of Wiseman's honorary pallbearers in Bluegrass Today illustrated his ecumenical, eclectic music history. They included Krauss, Marty Stuart, Bill Anderson, Charlie Daniels, Vince Gill and Sonny Osborne. His "hallmark was crossing musical genre lines," Bill Friskics-Warren wrote for The New York Times. Thanki notes, "He collaborated with artists ranging from big band leader Woody Herman to singer-songwriter John Prine [another honorary pallbearer] to funk master Bootsy Collins."
“Not to sound too critical, but the ‘bluegrass’ classification was the worst damned thing ever happened to me,” Wiseman told the roots-music magazine No Depression in 2006. “Up until then I was getting as much airplay as Marty Robbins or Ray Price,” two country crooners who had crossover pop hits. Wiseman's biggest hit as a songwriter and performer was "Jimmy Brown the Newsboy," a 1959 tune that reflected his deep roots in traditional music that preceded bluegrass. His "signature song, '’Tis Sweet to Be Remembered,' was written in 1902, and his version owed as much to vintage pop and swing music as it did to country or bluegrass," Friskics-Warren writes.
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